Blog Post

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, Africa (and the Middle East) will be the fastest growing region in terms of internet traffic in the next four years with the expectation being a growth equivalent to 527 times the volume of the entire internet in this region in 2005. The report by Cisco forecasts internet growth from 2015 through to 2020, when Africa is expected to reach this predicted volume.

Based on the study, Africa and the Middle East will see an increase of 71% in mobile data and internet traffic in the same period, from the 294 Petabytes per month in 2015 to 4, 314 Petabytes by 2020, with the global increase in mobile data and internet traffic going from 3,685 Petabytes per month in 2015 to 30,564 by 2020.

Furthermore, it appears that video services and content will continue to be the leader compared to all other types of applications. Internet video will increase to a whopping 79% of global internet traffic by 2020, increasing from its 63% in 2015. This will see the monthly video usage increasing to 3-trillion internet video minutes per month. In the category of video, HD and Ultra HD video will see an increase from 53% in 2015 to 82% by 2020, of all the internet video traffic.

On the business side, there is an increase expected of approximately 2.3 times the amount in 2015, increasing from 10,149 Petabyters per month in 2015 to 23,383 by 2020 and business mobile data increasing from 658 Petabytes per month to 4,484 in the same period, worldwide. Africa and the Middle East see business internet traffic growing from 678 Petabytes per month in 2015 to 1,758 Petabytes per month by 2020 across mobile and fixed internet devices.

Across the board, the growth of mobile and fixed internet is expected to increase in most geographical areas by between 20% and 80% with Africa and the Middle East with the biggest growth during this period.